Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince
by Pogi1
Summary: My own version of the Half Blood Prince! Voldemort is after an ancient and very powerful artefact. Muggles join forces with wizards! HH romance!
1. A Mask of Silver And Gold

The Dark Lord removed his face from the ancient mask. . .

For a few brief moments it seemed he was happy, very happy. Whatever vision he had just had using the very ancient artefact must have been very good. 

Then the Dark Lord's face slowly returned to its now near-permanent expression of anger and rage. In the background he could hear the sounds of battle. The sounds of powerful spells being cast roared and thundered. That and the sounds of muggle weapons and war machines. The muggles seemed to have brought their most powerful and advanced weapons to this battle. His hands clenched themselves into fists. He silently cursed Dumbledore for involving those filthy muggles! Muggles alone he could defeat with a single spell, no matter how advanced their weapons. But that muggle loving Dumbledore had to put his cursed battle spells on their muggle weapons and muggle armour. 

The Dark Lord looked longingly at the ancient mask...mounted on its pedestal, longing to press his face there again and experience more visions that might reveal to him ancient knowledge and magical secrets of unimaginable power, long lost and forgotten by the world.

He was deciding between pressing his face to the mask for a few seconds again, or joining his Death Eaters right there and then in the battle outside, but his next action was decided for him. 

Because at that very moment, Albus Dumbledore had just burst into the room. 

In a roar of rage, the Dark Lord whirled violently to face the intruder, wand held high, pointed at the intruder's face.

"Tom. . ." Dumbledore said in his calmest voice. His wand held low, but pointed at the Dark Lord's heart. 

"You. . ." said the Dark Lord with a very cold voice. 

They stared at each other like that for what seemed like ages. . .one extremely calm, the other extremely angry. And then, as if they read each other's mind, both vanished at the same moment. The Dark Lord in a puff of green smoke, Dumbledore in a brilliant flash of blue light. And then the room with the ancient mask suddenly exploded. A giant green fireball now flared, expanding violently where the room used to be. . .

One Year Ago. . .

Lucius Malfoy clutched a muggle newspaper in his left hand, hesitating to bring to the Dark Lord. He knew he should, it contained potentially important information, but he also knew the Dark Lord bore a strong hatred of anything muggle. That and the simple fact that the Dark Lord was still in a very bad mood. After all, he had just lost the prophecy at the Ministry so very recently, and he was still recovering from his battle with Dumbledore and the failed attempt to possess Harry Potter. So he did the only thing he could, he made a deal with Bellatrix. The Dark Lord might be more receptive to it if it came from Bellatrix, whom the Dark Lord seemed to trust more than any other Death Eater. Bellatrix was also the only one who managed a small victory out of that mess in the Ministry by killing Sirius Black. That should at the very least cause a lot of trouble and pain for Harry Potter. The Dark Lord was certainly very pleased about that. 

Bellatrix was to bring the muggle newspaper to the Dark Lord, but she was also to mention Lucius' name as the one who brought it to her attention. This way they shared the credit of whatever value the information might contain. Lucius made sure she would mention his name. He put a spell on the paper so that it would burst into flames should Bellatrix not mention his name when she gave it to the Dark Lord.

"Oh don't be such a paranoid Malfoy, I'm not to going to hog all the credit. Besides, what possible use is the information on a muggle paper anyway?" Bellatrix argued as she took the paper from him and noticed the Securus spell Malfoy cast on it.

"Just please give it to him and tell him to look in page three, at the bottom left section of the paper." Lucius pleaded. "It could mean the difference between victory and defeat!" he warned.

"Very well, very well. . ." a bored Bellatrix responded. Slowly making her way to the Dark Lord's private room.

"Muggles, useless animals . . ." Bellatrix muttered, shaking her head, as she was about the enter the Dark Lord's room.

Lucius waited outside and hoped the Dark Lord would at least read the article instead of just ignoring it. It was truly a stroke of luck that he got his hands on this muggle paper at all. He was off buying some magical contraband in Knockturn Alley, when he accidentally bumped into some wizarding family from Greece, who were tourists on vacation in London. They were going around Diagon Alley shopping, when they suddenly made a wrong turn into Knockturn Alley. The man leading them wasn't looking at where he was going, but instead had his eyes fixed on a muggle paper he was holding. He bumped into Lucius just as Lucius was on his way out of Knockturn Alley. Lucius was about to hex the man in anger for being a clumsy idiot, when he saw the back of the folded paper the man was holding. The words "mask", "gold and silver", "emerald tipped horn", and "very ancient" got his attention. He grabbed the man's paper without saying a word and ran. The poor man could only complain to his family and whoever was around them. He could be heard yelling in heavily accented English "Englishmen! They have no manners, these barbarians! Glitsis! Vlamenos! Fae ta arhidia mu!!!!!!!!!"

Lucius overheard some of it and whispered under his breath that the man was lucky he didn't turn his entire family into a bunch of rats. 

Lucius snapped out of his recollection, and was considering using a hearing enhancing spell to try and overhear the Dark Lord's reaction to the muggle paper. 

Five Minutes Later. . .

"Malfoy!!!" called the Dark Lord.

Lucius hurried to the Dark Lord's room, not sure whether the Dark Lord was pleased or angry.

Malfoy entered and bowed low, "Yes my lord. . ." Malfoy said and kept himself bowed. 

The Dark Lord's withered forefinger was pointing at a picture next to an article in page three of 'Ta Nea', a Greek daily. It was a rather small article, just a few paragraphs and one picture, located at the bottom part of the page. It was about some archaeological dig in Greece. The dig site along with the chief archeaologist was shown in the picture. Apparently somebody's found a bunch of old artefacts. Not unusual for a nation and people as old as Greece. The Dark Lord tapped the picture, and a small smile seemed to appear in his face, but very quickly disappeared. He gestured to Malfoy to arise from his bow. 

Lucius was relieved and silently rejoiced that at the very least, the Dark Lord had not simply ignored the muggle paper. 

"Bring him and the artefact to me....." the Dark Lord said in a cold, coarse voice.

Lucius immediately understood who and what the Dark Lord meant. Bellatrix, having never even looked at the article was a little confused. Not wanting to appear stupid though, she immediately bowed and said "As you wish my lord!" Malfoy bowed again as well. 

Once both of them were outside the Dark Lord's room, Bellatrix immediately questioned Lucius. 

"What was that about? Bring who and what to him? Why?" a confused Bellatrix said.

With a smug look of triumph on his face, Lucius opened up the muggle paper to page three and pointed at the article that had so intrigued the Dark Lord's attention.

"This Bellatrix, this. . ." he tapped the article to make his point.

Bellatrix, familiar with both Greek and Latin languages had no trouble reading the article.

"So someone found some old artefacts in Greece? So what?! With that nation as old as it is, it would be unusual if someone DIDN'T find an old artefact everyday!" exclaimed Bellatrix.

"Look again Bellatrix. It says the artefact might be older than anything ever found on Greece. It also says one of artefacts found was a mask made of silver and gold, with a single horn protruding in the center of the forehead of the mask."

Bellatrix' face was blank as a white board. It suddenly occurred to Lucius she wasn't as well versed in the old magical legends as he was. Well, no need to let her in on the whole thing then. Lucius figured it would be to his advantage to keep most of what he knew to himself. Obviously the Dark Lord knew of the legend about the mask. It was a very old legend, almost forgotten. Some say it dates back over 10,000 years. Some say even double that, long before the 5,000 to 7,000 B.C. date which was the officially recognized beginning of modern civilization. Lucius wasn't sure himself. But the muggle article was unmistakable in its description. Artefacts possibly older than any known existing Greek artefacts (subject to further tests of course), a mask of silver and gold, with a single silver horn in the forehead, the horn tipped with an emerald, perfectly merged with the silver body of the horn, serving as a glittering green horn's tip.

The muggle archaeologist Harrison D'Orfe might just have found what just might be the most significant, and most powerful, ancient artefact for the wizarding world. And he probably has absolutely no idea what he had just found. But the more he thought about it, the surer Lucius became, that Mr. D'Orfe had just found the mask of the Half-Blood Prince.

Lucius Malfoy suddenly burst into a run. He needed at least three other Death Eaters for this mission, in addition to Bellatrix. Bellatrix ran too to catch up. 

Lucius had to do this fast and without attracting too much attention. He hoped like crazy that no one on Dumbledore's side had seen the article yet, or if they have, that they haven't seen its connection to the ancient legend yet. But he was absolutely sure that Dumbledore would see the connection immediately the moment someone brought that article to him. With this thought, he ran even faster, leaving Bellatrix desperately trying to catch up with his haste. 


	2. The Warrior Of Privet Drive

Number 4 Privet Drive

It is a beautiful day outside Number 4 Privet Drive. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the warm summer breeze is blowing. But the occupant of the smallest room in Number 4 Privet Drive paid no attention to all this. He was simply too busy with more important things to pay attention to such things as singing birds, summer breezes and a perfect cloudless day outside. 

Harry was busy preparing for war. He had no choice. Just like the prophecy said, it was either him or Voldemort. Well, he has no wish to be a killer, but it's not like he has much of a choice. The prophesy was quite clear. He'd gotten it memorized by now "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."

He'd only been back at Privet Drive for about a week or so, but in that time he had made himself quite busy. Since he couldn't practice magic here, being underage and around muggles, he did the next best thing...he taught himself all about muggle weapons, both ancient and modern. He borrowed books about war and muggle armies from the library, he went to an internet cafe and downloaded articles on muggle war tactics and weaponry. He even bought "The Art of War" book by Sun Tzu. 

He knew that none of these would be enough to defeat Voldemort, but it might be useful against lower ranking Death Eaters who didn't know enough magic to defend themselves from such simple weapons as crossbows and poison darts, or spears. 

He even built himself a homemade crossbow and an atl-atl. He set-up a bunch of targets on one wall of his room, using some old wooden boards. On the wooden boards were stuck 3 pieces of parchment...they bore the hand-drawn images of Bellatrix, Voldemort, and Umbridge.

Deep inside, he was still hurting from losing Sirius, but outside you couldn't tell. Inside he may weep, but outside...he was a young man preparing turn himself into a fiercesome warrior. He vowed to avenge his godfather and his parents. There is no way he was going to let Voldemort win! 

He wasn't simply thinking like a soldier, he was trying to think like a general! Everyday when he woke up he would ask himself, what can I teach the DA next year that will help us win the war? What can I learn that will help me lead them to victory? 

He was no longer looking at the DA as just a group that practiced to defend themselves should they encounter Death Eaters.

Now that Voldemort has no more reason to hide in the shadows, he was certain that mere "defense" was enough. It was time to learn offense. It was time the DA lived up to its name. It was time they truly became Dumbledore's Army! Sure there were the Aurors from the ministry, but there were too few of them. Even with the help of the Order, there's still not enough. As he had found out, too few of them can even create corporeal patroni! Now with the Dementors likely to side with Voldemort, they need more people who can produce corporeal patroni! He vowed he would teach as many of the DA as he can to properly produce patroni. 

THHHUWWWWUUCCCKKKKKK!!!!

Harry admired his aim with his homemade crossbow as his arrow just struck the image of Voldemort smack in the middle of the forehead. The first arrow was still quivering when he took out a second longer "arrow". This he placed not on the crossbow, but on a curious little notched piece of wood with a stone weight tied to it. He raised his arm high behind his back, and swung with all his strength, at the same time leaning forward, as he let the long dart go. 

THHHHUUUCCCCKK!!!!!!!!

It struck the image of Umbridge smack in the big ugly toad like mouth. The weapon he just used is called an atl-atl. He learned about it in the internet. It is a primitive weapon more ancient than the bow and arrow. But has he also found out, it is quite powerful. Capable of launching long darts at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Primitive, but effective. The atl-atl was slowly being rediscovered by modern hunters throughout the world, and was still widely used by the world's indiginous native cultures. 

Harry then took out something from a secret pocket he'd sewn into his jeans. He flicked his wrist. 

TAACCCCKKKKK!!!!!!

The 8 pointed ninja star embedded itself between the eyes of the image of Bellatrix on the wall. Harry had bought a bunch of them off a martial arts store he saw while on the way to the library. 

Downstairs...

"Now what the devil is that crazy boy up too now???!!!!" yelled Uncle Vernon. 

"I don't know dear, he's been even stranger than usual since he got back. He keeps himself locked in his room all the time now, and hasn't even touched the food I left outside his door last night. I think he even changed his locks. I tried to open his room last night to take a peek, but the key no longer works." replied Aunt Petunia.

"Dad, I could spy on him you know. If I can borrow your drill, I'd make a hole in the wall and see what he's up to." Dudley suggested.

"Put a hole in the wall! Heavens! And damage our beautiful house?!" shrieked Aunt Petunia. 

"Now, now dear. The boy has a point here. The kind of racket he's making upstairs, how do we know he isn't already doing some damage to our house?!" responded Uncle Vernon. 

When Petunia didn't say anything, Vernon figured she'd let Dudley drill the hole.

"Go get the drill Dudley, the manual one, not the powered one...so you'll make less noise when you drill the hole. You know how to use it right?"

"Yup!" said Dudley excitedly. He too had been wondering what his strange cousin has been up to. It's about time they found out.

Upstairs...

Harry finished with his target practice. He sat on his bed and tried not to think of Sirius. He missed him a lot, but he tried his best to channel his sorrow into something productive, like preparing for war. The scene at the ministry replayed itself in his head. Bellatrix laughing with delight. Sirius falling into the veil. . .

"I'll get you Bellatrix, I swear!!!!" he yelled out loud. 

He smacked his right fist into his open left hand. Then he thought of some battle scenarios. He wondered what effect modern muggle weapons would have on Death Eaters. Probably will take care of the entire lower-ranks...well, if they caught them by surprise and Voldemort wasn't there to protect them. It'll be no good against dementors though, or against Voldemort himself. Still, it would be an advantage if they could get the muggles' help. If the Royal Army and the MI:6 were on their side, they can round up Voldemort's pawns and other lower-ranking followers. That'd free up the Aurors, the Order and his DA to go after Voldemort and his inner circle. Surely Voldemort is a threat not just to wizards but to muggles as well. He did kill a bunch of muggles before. 

Harry vowed he'd suggest this idea to Dumbledore whenever he got back to Number 12 Grimauld Place. It's got a small chance of success, but he at least knew the Statute of Secrecy wasn't absolute. He knew the muggle Prime Minister was alerted of the Azkaban break-out by the Ministry of Magic. So obviously there are some high level contacts between both worlds. How much contact there is, he didn't know, but he vowed to find out. 

He heard a strange noise outside his bedroom. It wasn't very loud. It was as if someone were trying NOT to make noise. He stuck his ear to the wall. A drill! Uncle Vernon or Dudley must be wondering what all the noise coming from his room is all about. Well, he'd teach them not to mess with him. No more Mr. Nice Harry, no more pushover Harry. He took a bottle of water, and poked a hole in the cap. He waited for the drill to punch through and for whoever it was outside to put their eye on the hole.

As soon as he saw an eyeball...he squirted it with water.

"AAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Mom! Dad! My eye! My eye!"

Dudley. Figures. Nosy little pig that he is. He should be grateful it was only water. "Duddydidikums! What happened!??!" a scared Aunt Petunia screamed.

Dudley was busy wiping his right eye. It had gone red. 

"That's it! I have had it with that crazy boy!" Uncle Vernon yelled and hurried up the stairs. 

"Listen you freak! If you don't get out of that room right now, I am going to break this door down!!!"

So Harry opened the door. . .

Aunt Petunia took one look at the drawings on the far wall with the arrows and darts and ninja stars stuck into them and screamed.

Uncle Vernon was in shock.

"Bloody freakin' awesome!!!!!" yelled a very suprised Dudley.

"Dad, can I get a crossbow too??!" he asked. 

Aunt Petunia screamed even louder. 


End file.
